Dr. Ahmet Kurt, an assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science and Information Systems at East Texas A&M University, recently completed a coveted six-week fellowship that equipped selected cybersecurity educators with hands-on AI tools, technical resources and mentorship to build modern curricula.

Kurt was one of just 25 educators selected nationwide to attend the “AI in Cybersecurity Education Faculty Development Summer Institute” hosted by The George Washington University in Washington, D.C. The institute is supported by funding from the National Science Foundation.

With regard to some of the key takeaways from the institute, Kurt said that he is eager to use new learning materials in conjunction with his own to teach East Texas A&M students.

“We were provided with a lot of materials to use in our teaching. I’ll be able to use these materials in addition to the ones I’ll create myself to modernize the AI course I have been teaching for the past two years,” Kurt said. “I am adding new modules to the course and creating new hands-on assignments.”

He added that there are three main avenues that he expects AI to be utilized in the field of education in the near future.

“Automated grading of student assignments, automated assignment generation (for instructors to assign to students) and automated quiz question generation, which is already being done,” Kurt said. “Beyond this, I expect AI to analyze course data and overall student grades to assess how the course is going, and tell the instructor how to improve things during the semester.”